29 Ways to Prepare for Entrepreneurship (358 hits)
1. Know who you are and what you really want. Be you; do you. Don’t select a business just to make money. Select a business because it’s really what you enjoy doing. Know going in how much money you need to make a year to remain in business and be happy being in business. 2. Find out what your purpose is; your purpose is usually hidden in whatever you are passionate about. You can make money from your passion. 3. Prepare; thoroughly research your market and competition and decide what you can do differently that will make you stand out. It doesn’t matter if thousands are in the same business; you are unique and you can make your business unique. Be honest and decide if there’s even a market for your business. 4. Prepare yourself financially. Unless you can afford to quit your job, don’t quit your job. If you can quit your job, make sure that you have enough money to pay all of your expenses for a minimum of one year and make sure that you’ve purchased individual health insurance. If you have to keep working for now, use your current salary as a sourceof financing. Decide each pay day how much you money you will budget to build your business. 5. Give more than you get. Share knowledge up to a point. Always give people more than they expect and you will be blessed many times over. 6. Educate yourself. Attend teleseminars, webinars and invest in a business coach or mentor; read as much as you can about changes and innovations in your industry. CAUTION: Don’t continue to “educate yourself” and never take action steps. You will continue to educate yourself throughout the life of your business. Make sure you ACTUALLY USE what you learn. 7. Decide who your customer is. Everyone is not your customer. Decide who your niche or target market is and focus on that group only. 8. Know what business you are in. If you are selling ladies’ suits, you are not just selling clothes; you are selling women the ability to feel good about their appearance. Get it? Sell and focus on the benefit to the customer and the feature of the product or service. 9. Take it one step and one day at the time. Do something every single day to market your business. If you haven’t finished your website or blog, do something every single day toward building your website or setting up your blog. Once you finish one task/goal, move to the next task/goal and do take a step every day until you’ve completed it. 10. Make a plan and work your plan. Sit down and strategically plan how you are going to launch this business or how you are going to build this business. If you incur an obstacle, figure away around or through it. Just don’t stop working your plan. 11. Take care of your physical and mental health. You must eat properly, exercise and get proper rest. This cannot be stressed enough. If you are stressed out, take a break from everything and recenter and refocus. Enlist prayer, meditation and breathing techniques; remember to breathe. 12. Define and plan for success. Decide what success means for you. You already know what you’ll do if the business fails but what you will do if it becomes a smashing success? 13. Do not look at entrepreneurship as being “self-employed.” Being self-employed is akin to having a job. Entrepreneurship is a lifestyle; a way of being. 14. Leap out of your comfort zone. At some point, you just have to have faith and go for it. Your prosperity is located outside of your comfort zone. 15. Know that business is business. If you are entering a business with a family member or friend, have a contract; put everything in writing. 16. Know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em. If you have given your all and you are still not making a profit, decide if you should continue on with this venture or try something new. It’s best to decide before you start that if you aren’t making such and such by such and such, you will start another business. 17. Prioritize. Make top priority activities and projects that will earn you some money. 18. Get professional business cards. Use them wisely; make your card work for you; list your products and services on the back and give people numerous ways to contact you. 19. Network relentlessley; make connections online and offline. Attend as many networking events that you can. 20. Use social networking wisely. Share helpful information and show that you are a real person not hiding behind a website, email address or phone number. Build relationships as much as you can via virtual environment. 21. What’s in a name? A large part of your success lies in the business name you choose. It should tell people what you do or sell. Choose your business name wisely. 22. Use free tools to market your business. Send out free press releases, use keyword analyzing websites and software to make sure your website will be found by search engines, submit articles regularly to article directories, use free teleseminar and webinar platforms. 23. Be committed. Be prepared to do whatever it takes to make your business successful. If it means arising one hour early in the morning, do it; if it means curtaling social activities, do it; if it means holding off on purchasing a new pair of shoes or electronics (unless you need the electronic gadget to take your business to the next level), don’t buy it; reinvest the money in your business. 24. FREE is the new standard. Be prepared to give away a certain amount of information and service and goods for free. People don’t know you; give them a taste and they’ll be hooked for life or move on. 25. Form a vision and feel the succeess before it is manifested. See in your mind’s eye what you want for your business and allow the feeling of already attaining to well up in your being. Before you know it, you’ll be living your dream. 26. Forgive and forget. If you’ve made unwise decisions in any area of your life, forgive yourself and move forward. If someone has mishandled you, forgive them and move forward. Keep moving forward; your momentum must always be forward motion. 27. Be okay with not knowing. The life of an entrepreneur is wrought with uncertainty. Get used to this way of being and living. You can’t possibly know or see everything. Be open and you will be shown the way. 28. Focus. When you are working on a project, stay focused on that project. Don’t break away to check your email (unless you are awaiting a document to help with the project) or look out of the window (only if you need to stretch and break away for sanity’s sake). Remain focused on your core product or service. Resist temptation to chase after new shiny objects. 29. Go tell it on the mountain – quickly! Be able to tell anyone in thirty seconds or less what you sell. Speak about your product or service from a standpoint of solving a problem for your target market.
